#ncpol, #ncga: Deja vu, all over again?
2014 was a great year for Republicans all around. They took out Kay Hagan and took back the US Senate from the Democrats. But, in North Carolina, they suffered a net loss of THREE seats in the state House while that chamber’s then-speaker was being elected to the US Senate.
I’ve talked with those three losing campaigns — either the candidates themselves or close associates — who all have a similar story on what helped lead to their defeat: an avalanche of leftist third-party mailers and ads into their districts, with nothing in return from the conservative / GOP side. (To be fair, two of the campaigns told me they got some mailer help WAY too late for it to matter.)
You would have thought that the NCGOP would have learned from that experience.
Fast forward to 2016. Democrats have made it clear they plan to carpet-bomb (concentrate their fire on) several GOP-held legislative seats in the Charlotte and Raleigh areas. I spoke with a source very close to one of the targeted GOP legislators who told me things are not looking good for this particular legislator. According to my source, EIGHTEEN mailers and ads from various leftist Super PACS have dropped into the district. Not a one paid for by the actual Democrat candidate. NOTHING has been paid for on behalf of this Republican incumbent. And here we are less than a month before the big vote. 
I had heard the House GOP caucus had pretty much emptied its wallet in the primaries to save David Lewis and Nelson Dollar — to the detriment of the party’s November efforts. Could this be the end-result of going way-too-far to save Nelson and David from conservative primary challengers? Could that overreach jeopardize the veto-proof majority — or majority, period — of the Republicans in the lower chamber? Have those chickens come home to roost?
If my suspicions are confirmed, we can kiss further conservative reform goodbye. A closer margin in the House — with just a few RINOs — can kill a lot of good stuff. Imagine that closer majority — or even a Democrat majority — in conjunction with Gov. Roy Cooper.
Well isn’t that just business as usual for the Raleigh GOPe. It is not like they are all that bright anyway, but they have gotten more lazy as they maintain power. I am thinking this Republican power thing was just a case of dumb luck, but the good things that have been done will be wasted with a shift of the house due to the incompetence of the electoral campaigns.
I for one have pretty much only received mailers for democraps…I am not sure how I got on that list but I would like to be off of it.
I was wrong about one thing….Several months ago, I opined that while Candidates like Dollar and Pendleton were vulnerable as their districts are deep in the interior of Wake County, I thought that Candidates on the periphery of the county like Avila and Malone were just too strong for the Dems to take out. Not saying they won’t prevail but Avila and Malone DO appear to be in a dogfight for their seats. And if either of those two loses, George Holding just might not carry Wake County. Not that I care, in the case of the latter.